Klarinet Archive - Posting 000233.txt from 2003/08

From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Tony=20Pay?= <tony_pay@-----.uk>
Subj: Re: [kl] Mouthpiece patches, stiff upper lip
Date: Sat, 9 Aug 2003 21:09:59 -0400

--- Russell Harlow <lharlow@-----.net> wrote:

> Most players I know, except for Richard Stolzman and John Yeh sit to play.

Probably they're playing in orchestras when they do. Most players stand in
recitals.

> David Weber told me he sits and occasionally rests the bell on his knee but
> when he played a solo the horn would always comes up. I can't rest the horn
> when I play because I find it inhibits freedom. When I studied with Gary
> Foster in LA in the 60's he played Dbl lip and told me if I was to play that
> way I should never rest the bell on the knee as it changed the embouchure.
> The secret I believe is what Harold Wright (who also sat when he played!)
> said to me ---you must have a stable mouthpiece with a balanced reed so that
> the sound is "there" without having to do very much. He told me never to
> play on a reed that doesn't sound good. Many, many times I've wanted to tell
> a conductor "I can't play today. The reed doesn't sound good"! McLane did
> sit. I have a video of him sitting for a concerto. But he said that he
> praticed standing up.

I have no idea where this gets us. It's all either trivial, or meaningless.
Of course we'd all like a good reed to play on. And, so these people did all
of that. Why does that mean we should? Why would resting the bell on the knee
change the embouchure?

> If you play with your teeth on the mouthpiece, no matter how lightly, you
> will get scratches.

I never did, before I used rubber patches.

> But I have seen mouthpieces that have very large grooves in them, as I'm sure
> you have (I almost bit through one myself when I was a student) and thats the
> problem.

Why is it a problem, never mind, *the* problem? Richard Muhlfeld had silver
plates inlaid in his mouthpieces to protect them.

"Who?" I hear you ask. (Well, he wasn't a legendary American, of course.)

> And of course a callus is formed on the upper lip-that is unavoidable

Why? I don't have a callus on my lower lip. Am I doing something 'wrong'?

> --and when you get tired from playing too long
> or an unresponsive reed or marching band (I don't recommend marching with
> two lips) it can get sore, but then that happens with single lip. The point
> is, you can play double lip without resting the bell for as long as you need
> if the lips are developed and you want to. (John Mohler told me the first
> time he saw McLane play he said McLanes' embouchure looked like a brick wall
> and he thought "I don't think I can bite that hard". Of course McLane wasn't
> biting, that was his impression of how the muscles looked.

Wow. The Arnie Schwarzanegger of the clarinet.

> Perhaps the main point of Dbl lip is that you are forced to develop all the
> muscles and then the fingers lighten up and other elements fall into place
> as they should.

All what muscles? Why would that make the fingers lighten up?

> If you can do it with single lip thats great. I find when I
> have gone back to single lip my playing can become a bit uneven. So I stay
> with it. Double lip is not for everyone but if a student can correct a
> problem with it or finds thats the direction they want to go they should be
> encouraged. Don't you think?

Perhaps. (I know you weren't asking me.)

> By the way, everyone that studied with McLane at Curtis had to change to Dbl
> lip. I guess he was serious.

I guess he was a stupidly arrogant prick, if he forced people who weren't
suited to it to do that. He'd certainly have ruined me.

Tony

Want to chat instantly with your online friends? Get the FREE Yahoo!
Messenger http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com/

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Klarinet is supported by Woodwind.Org, http://www.woodwind.org/